This blog talks about my own experience in my various jobs and other observations

Monday, November 11, 2013

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: POWER AND POLITICS THE PILLARS OF AN ORGANIZATION

Introduction

Organizations are started in order to process raw
material resources using labor resources, both of which are called as “inputs” which
are received from their environments into finished products and/or services,
called as “outputs”. These outputs are
then traded in the environment for consumption. “Organizations can also be
called as mechanisms through which many people combine their efforts and work
together to accomplish much more than what one person alone can do”(Stephens). This article will talk about organizational
behavior in the light of power and the underlying politics. (UNIT 1:
INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR) lays down that organizations
are social systems which have to be understood if one wishes to work in them. Organizational
Power is defined as a capacity that X has to influence the behavior of Y; so
that the latter does something he or she would not otherwise have done (http://www.iuc-edu.eu/group/sem1_L2/2010%20MBR/uop/MBR2010%20Lecture%209%20-%20Power%20and%20Politics.pdf). This power can be wielded for the betterment
of the organization, or for furthering personal agendas. In the latter case, it
is called as Politics. This article describes organizational behavior in the
light of organizational power and politics and seeks to explain the influence
of power and politics in an organization using a case study. Finally, based on
the research and the study on organizational behavior, power and politics,
certain conclusions have been drawn on the subject.

Body

The Performance Equation is given as (Stephens):

JOB PERFORMANCE = ATTRIBUTES X
WORK X ORGANIZATIONAL

EFFORT
SUPPORT

So we can see in the above equation that Job
Performance is a function of Organizational Support. So even if you have the attributes and put in
the necessary work effort, if there is no support from the organization, your
job performance will be bad. Each
individual working in an organization pursues his own agenda in a job, thus he
strives to serve his own selfish motives first and the organizations goals
second. This is where politics comes into the picture. Since he pursues his
self interests first, he cannot give the adequate support that his boss or
subordinate requires in doing their respective jobs. This results in both the
individuals mentioned not being able to do their jobs well. This leads to
conflict and workplace politics. A majority of the times, workplace politics is
a result of workplace diversity or workforce diversity. A workforce consisting
of a broad mix of workers from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, of
different ages and genders, and of different domestic and national cultures is prone
to create workplace politics.

Power can be equated with influence
(Johnson). At times, a position of authority within an organization lends power
to a person, but it is pertinent to mention here that, borrowed power is not as
long-lasting as that derived from leadership. Each organization has some people
who command respect and exert influence by virtue of their leadership skills, while
there are some managers who although enjoying
positions of high authority, still cannot get their work done. Small business owners who wish to enhance
their own influence and that of their managers should consider the five sources
of power available at organizations. Three of these come with position, while
two are available to anyone. These five
sources of organizational power are:

Legitimate Power: This power comes with the position
a person enjoys in the hierarchy and it increases with the vertical elevation
of the person in hierarchy(Johnson).

Coercive Power: This power is given to a person by
virtue of his position and such a manager tends to use coercive power to
influence the behavior of his subordinates (Johnson).

Reward Power: This power comes from a manager’s
authority to dole out all kinds of rewards including raises and promotions,
favorable reviews, shifts, positive attention and finally, mentoring(Johnson).

Expert Power: (Johnson)
When a person possesses the expertise or skills that others value, then he is
said to gain expert power.

Referent Power (Johnson):
Also called “charismatic power”, through which it seeks to describe this sort
of power that a person has over another.
According to the authors of “Management; Meeting and Exceeding Customer
Expectations,” each individual possesses some inherent referent power, although
it may be in varying degrees.

Workplace politics (office politics or
organizational politics) is the use of power within an organization for the
pursuit of personal agendas without regard to their effect on the
organization’s efforts to achieve its goals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_politics).
Both individuals and groups tend to engage in office politics to cater to their
selfish motives, at the expense of the organization’s resources. Such
self-serving political actions can harm social groupings, cooperation,
information sharing and many other organizational functions.

Case
Study

A Real Estate Organization by the name of ABC
recruited a Contracts Manager X (the student), to perform the commercial
functions related to construction. Although, designated as “manager” he was the
only member in the Contracts Department. He was asked to subordinate work to Y,
designated as Asst Manager Billing and Contracts. X was asked to report to Gen
Manager Projects, Z. Y was also asked to report to Z along with his reporting
to X.

Now, Y had a personal agenda that he wanted to
become a vendor for that Real Estate Organization, and he was taking the
necessary steps towards his goal. All vendors required the nod of Z for being
appointed as vendors. New vendors were appointed by the Real Estate firm with
the joint approval of both X and Z, they both being involved with commercial
duties. X checked their technical capabilities and Z checked their financial
capabilities.

Now, Y was not financially capable, although, he was
technically capable of becoming a vendor. The Organization had following
stipulations for new vendors:

ØVendor
should have executed at least one project of INR 1.0 crore and above in the
last 5 years

ØVendor
should have 15 years experience as an independent vendor in real estate projects

ØVendor
should have his own equipments for making site mixed concrete

ØVendor
should have his own skip and hoist for transporting the site mixed concrete to
large heights

ØVendor
should submit a solvency certificate before being appointed

ØVendor
should submit the last 5 years ITR at the time of being considered for
empanelment

ØVendor
should have a valid service tax and VAT registration at the time of empanelment

ØNo
Mobilization Advances will be given to empanelled vendors

ØAdvances
will be given to empanelled vendors against material dumped at site

Now, Y was not fulfilling a majority of the above
stipulations. But, since he wanted to become a vendor, he started taking steps
to enter the good books of the Gen Manager Projects. This is because, he knew
that X was very straightforward and would not bend the rules for someone. But,
he was sure that Z would consider his application for empanelment if he did all
the work allotted by him. Therefore, he started devoting all his time to doing
the work given by Z and started avoiding the work given by X.

As a result, X had to do all the work, which
resulted in loss of his efficiency. He was in turn pulled up by Z for being
slow in performing his duties. Now, X could not complain to him that Y was not
helping him with the work as he feared that Z may not heed his complaint since
he was a new member of the organization and was still in his probation period.
Therefore, he silently kept on doing all the work that was required to be done.
At the same time, he also heard the taunts of the Gen Manager Projects for
being slow in his work. The Asst Manager Billing and Contracts left no stone
unturned to put X into trouble and he saw to it that he received a lot of flak
from Z for his work. Although, he was designed as a subordinate to X, he
started diverting his work towards X. X, being new and not comfortable working
with both Y and Z, silently did all the work, trying to bide his time until he
completed his probation period.

Unfortunately, matters reached such a stage that X
was asked to do Y’s share of work too as the latter was doing the work of Z, in
trying to gain favor with Z. This
resulted in a dip in X’s efficiency and he became terribly slow in his work. So
much so that he did not even have time to relax between activities. To say the
least, he even did not have time for having his lunch.

Finally, one day, when tendering for a very
prestigious project undertaken by the Organization was underway. Z asked Y to
assist X in the tendering process. Y was ready to do this work because he was
interested in knowing the rates given by the bidders so that he could put his
own quote based on the information he gets about the lowest tender received. X
knew Y’s intention and so he tried to keep him away from the quotes. But,
finally on special instructions from Z, he had to relent and show him the
sensitive information. Y took in all the
information about the lowest bidder and then he tailored his own quote lower
than the lowest bidder and put it along with the quotes of the other bidders.
Already, he had taken permission from the Gen Manager to insert his quote in
the documents. The result was that Y got the project based on recommendations
from Z, and he gave it off to some other vendor who gave him his percentage
margin, for giving him the work. This information was leaked out to the owner
of the Organization and he asked the new Contracts Manager to leave his job on
grounds of not following the organizational rules.

Organizational politics in itself is a dangerous
game, which requires an assumption of all risks like any contact sport. It has
to be played with full diligence and a thorough understanding of the landscape,
players and rules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_politics).
One needs to be careful when forging
alliances. Depending upon how the situation turns out, old alliances are to be
forgotten and new alliances have to be entered into. When conflicts arise,
employees who rely on hard facts will find it easier to diffuse the situation.
Always looking out for the best interests of your company is the best way to
insure that your motivation will remain unquestioned. Playing the game of
organizational politics is necessary in today’s organizational atmosphere if
one wants to grow vertically very fast, but this can also be very exhausting at
times. In organizations today, which are politically charged, an exhaustive
effort is required to just interact – let alone get one’s work done (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_politics).

The best ways to tackle
organizational politics is to conceal one’s weaknesses, easing into situations
carefully, picking battles with both subordinates and colleagues wisely, and
modifying one’s approach if things are not panning out as expected. As long as
one understands the landscape before playing this dangerous game. If all else
fails, at times it is best to agree to disagree before the situation turns
hostile. One should know when to say “I don’t know” and when to admit that one
was wrong in assessing the situation and apologize. This is the best way to
diffuse a conflict. In order for this tactic to succeed, it has to be used
sparingly as otherwise it will lose its effectiveness and you may be labelled
as incompetent. Being prepared beforehand is the key in any game we play and
similar is the case with organizational politics. One must be physically
prepared, know the rules, and know your opponents as well as your own team. The
politican landscape must be read just like a cricket team captain reads the
pitch before the toss to decide whether to pick bowling or fielding if he turns
out the winner in the toss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_politics).

Conclusion

From the above article, one can infer that power and
politics have become synonymous with organizations today, whether they are
private or government. If an employee has to work in them, then he has to
understand the dynamics of how organizational politics works. Assuming an
employee enters an organization at a certain position; he only has his
legitimate power, conferred on him by his position. Once he starts working in
the organization and starts exerting his legitimate power and at times coercive
power, to get the things he wants for him to work efficiently. Once he
completes his probation period, he starts understanding the organization and
the rules by which it works. Then he gains expert power and reward power by
performing diligently for a period of six months. Then he starts getting things
done using these two sources of power. Finally, after having worked in the same
organization for a period of one year or more, he gains what we can as referent
power. This referent power gives him the opportunity to recommend an employee
or an associate with whom the organization can work. The journey from
legitimate power to referent power is a tough one strewn with thorns.

About Me

I am a graduate civil engineer with 15 years of industry experience and a diploma in construction contracts management.

I am also a freelance article writer. I can write articles on all topics ranging from project management, civil engineering, procurement, human resources, marketing, finance, health and well being, social media, etc.